BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, September 30, 1826

Beethoven and Nephew Karl are staying with Brother Johann at his estate in Gneixendorf, Schloss Wasserhof. The plan is to stay between 8 and 14 days, to give time for Karl’s hair to grow back so he can enlist in the army.

Ludwig asks where Johann is. Karl tells him that if Ludwig would like to go out into the field later, the place where Johann can be found is on the left, past the storehouse, then right and straight ahead.

Beethoven makes a shopping list for things to buy when they go into town, a list of basic necessities that Johann told them not to bring, since they could buy whatever they needed in Krems.
“In Krems:

• Wax candles
• Cotton
• Ink
• Pencil
• Pen [erasing] knife
• Blotting paper
• Tooth powder
  13
• Soap powder
  Ordinary writing paper”

Ludwig is still thinking about the Order of the Red Eagle that he hopes to get from the King of Prussia as a reward for the dedication of the Ninth Symphony. Karl tells him, “If you become a nobleman as a result, which I don’t doubt, that would be good.” Karl suggests that his uncle write to Stephan von Breuning. Karl intends to enlist and stay with his new regiment.

Ludwig, distracted, repeats “+ Pen knife” from the above list.

He asks Karl what today is, and Karl tells him “Today is September 30.” Ludwig also repeats “Blotting paper” from the above list.

Brother Johann joins them. He still has a great deal to do. He says he will take care of the shopping but the ink will probably have to come tomorrow.

Beethoven writes in the conversation book, “Freu dich des Lebens” [Enjoy life], which is the text of the canon WoO 195, written for the German-Canadian visitor Theodor Friedrich Molt on December 16, 1825.

There is discussion of the spoiled wine. It had been left standing in an earthenware crock and it absorbed the odor.

A young farmhand asks Beethoven what time it is. Karl suggests that Ludwig might want to go out into the fields with him. They are harvesting potatoes.

Karl reminds his uncle that “You once wrote your Brother a letter, in which you called him a Selbstfisch. There were horrible arguments about the significance of this word until finally his wife [Therese] declared that it meant the same as Selbstler or egoist.”

Johann tells Ludwig about the Zehnent, a ten percent tax levied on fruits and vegetables.

Johann suggests that Karl, if he conducts himself well in the army, could raise himself to the level of a Hofkriegsrat [War Ministry official] in the space of two years.

After taking a walk, Ludwig looks for Karl and cannot find him. He asks the farmhand if he has seen him, but he has not. He suggests he might be visiting Johann’s wife.

When he finds Karl, there is another disturbance between them. [Prof. Albrecht suggests that Ludwig may have joked about Karl having a romantic rendezvous with Therese; since she had a history of illicit liaisons, Karl took great offense.] Karl writes, “You shame yourself and me through such behavior.” Ludwig protests that he was just joking. Karl continues, “It is no laughing matter. I only told the young man that he ought to send the servants outside, because I saw where the conversation was going. After your Brother had sent me back into the manor house, I soon came back out without having found you. Someone said that you had gone for a walk. His wife got up later and led me around the vineyard. Now I have had coffee over there.”

A servant girl brings Beethoven a bouquet of flowers to place in his window.

Karl agrees that the place where Uncle Ludwig walked today is pretty. Such walks wake Karl up. “Tomorrow there is nothing to do in the fields because it is Sunday.” [October 1.] Someone, possibly Johann, is in the farmyard feeding the fowl.

Conversation Book 122, 22r-25r. Translation by Prof. Theodore Albrecht.